MARKINGS ON G. O. GRAFTIO’S LETTER AND ASSIGNMENTS TO N. P. GORBUNOV

Written:Written on September 2, 1921Published:First published in 1933 inLenin Miscellany XXIII.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1976,

      Moscow,Volume 45,

      pages277b-278a.Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet ArchiveYou may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

...Ifyou have the time, you will find out (from the
statement.—Ed.) about the incredible conditions of the||| NBbureaucratic irresponsible confusion, and frequently of what looks like
deliberate resistance, in which we have to carry on the
building of the Volkhov hydroelectric power installation,

inaugurated by you through Comrade Smidovich three years ago.

...Itpains me very much to waste your valuable time,
but I have decided to do so only because of my strong
conviction|||NBthat the Volkhov installation must be completed as soon
as possible at all costs.

ComradeGorbunov:

Willyou undertake this business (or pass it to
Smolyaninov by agreement with him).

Thestatement and report by the chief engineer of the
Volkhov site, Comrade Graftio (of 25/8), expose bothcrime(red tape) and a number of mistakes by the S.E.C. or the
Petrograd Soviet of Deputies, or theC.L.D., or all these
establishments together.

ThereforeI suggest that you:

(1)atonce instruct the People’s Commissariat for
Justice, on my behalf, to investigate the red tape and to bringthe guilty to trial. Introduce at theC.L.D.within a week.

(2)Calla conference (S.E.C. + Petrograd Soviet + State
Planning Commission inviting other departments concerned)
to work out, within a week, a draftC.L.D.decision on
measures to accelerate the works and arrange them
properly[1](perhaps, on the model of the flax trust, giving Graftio
more powers?).

V.Ulyanov(Lenin)Chairman, C.P.C.

Informme of execution.

[1]Bya decision on September 10, 1921, the C.L.D. qualified the
Volkhov project as a “top priority construction project”. All
departments were instructed to give top priority to indents fromthe Volkhov project. The progress of construction was repeatedly
discussed by the All-Russia C.E.C. See also this volume,
Document 374; present edition, Vol. 35, Document 298;Collected
Works, Fifth (Russian) Edition, Vol. 53, Documents 288 and
293.